1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for creating an individually balanced environment of sound and light.
2. Description of the Related Art
Certain benefits of utilizing light, sound, color, and vibration are known. Medical evidence indicates that the health of people may be affected by exposure to light. The scientific investigation and therapeutic use of light in medicine has its origins well over a century ago in the works of Edwin D. Babbitt, M. D. (The Principles of Light and Color, 1873) and Seth Pancoast, M. D. (Blue and Red Light or Light and Its Rays as Medicine, 1877).
The “Spectro-Chrome” therapy, developed by scientist/inventor Dinshah P. Ghadiali and utilized in the U.S. from roughly 1920–1950, was used successfully by Dr. Kate W. Baldwin at the Philadelphia Women's Hospital to aid in the healthy regeneration of skin tissue in the case of severe and extensive burns on the body. The Spectro-Chrome therapy involved repeatedly exposing certain areas of the body to certain colors of light for a fixed duration of time. Colored light therapy research was furthered in the 1940's by Russian scientist S. V. Krakov, who was the first to examine its effects on the autonomic nervous system. Chromotherapy, the therapeutic use of light of particular colors, is believed to interact with the body via the skin and the eyes which may function as receptors.
Intensity of light and its overall spectral components are also known to be important. Utilization of sunlight as a cure for jaundice was discovered by accident in 1956 by Sister Ward of Rochford General Hospital in England. More recent studies have examined the role of sunlight and full-spectrum lighting to address Seasonal Affective Disorder and a host of other health disorders including bulimia, delayed sleep phase syndrome, and regulation of menstrual cycles.
It is also known that sound plays a substantial role in changes of pulse frequency, blood pressure, blood circulation, muscle relaxation, perspiration, and oxygen consumption of a person. Sound therapy is well documented medically to have a profound effect on human health. Rhythm, pitch, frequency (tone), intensity, resonances, harmonics, and vibration all affect the body. The therapeutic use of sound (e.g., in the form of music) has ancient roots, but Burton Goldberg in Alternative Medicine, cites a medical investigation of the effect of sound on the human body as early as 1896. Medicine's recent understanding of the interconnectedness of the sub-cellular and intracellular tissue-tensegrity matrix of the body, often referred to as the living matrix, prove the effects of sound on the body to be profound. Sound is composed of pressure waves which are not only perceived by the auditory system of the body, but are felt as vibrations as well. Auditory signals are understood to be carried to the vagus nerve in the body via, for example, the eighth and tenth cranial nerves. The vagus nerve extends to all of the visceral organs of the body and, in addition to regulating breathing, heart rate and speech, also affects the immune system.
Cymatic therapy, developed by Sir Peter Guy Manners, M. D., applies audible sound to the skin to stimulate natural regulatory and immunological systems, and to produce a near-optimum metabolic state for a particular cell or organ. Dr. Manners is said to have identified the healthy vibrational resonance frequency of tissues and organs in the body. Computerized cymatic therapy allegedly transmits the appropriate audio resonance frequencies needed to reestablish healthy resonance in unhealthy tissues. According to Goldberg, cymatic therapy has been in use in the U.S. since the 1960's and has no known side affects (although it cannot be used on patients with pacemakers). An important point about cymatic therapy is that it does not purport to heal but, rather, effectively places the body in such a state that its own natural ability to heal is enhanced.
Sound can also be utilized to affect brainwave states, as extensively investigated and documented by Robert Monroe and the Monroe Institute. The effects of binaural beats, the brain's integration of two coherent sound waves that are very close in frequency to generate the sensation of a third sound from the brainstem's superior olivary nucleus, are neurologically conveyed to shift brainwaves. The Monroe Institute's Hemi-Sync™ audio technology embeds binaural beat patterns in music to induce relaxed or other altered consciousness states. Integrative medicine champion Dr. Andrew Weil has recently released a book/CD entitled, Sound Body, Sound Mind: Music for Healing, which also utilizes binaural beats in music to induce relaxation, shifted consciousness/brainwave states, and restorative healing. This new field of psychoacoustics adds an additional dimension to the examination of any healing technology that utilizes sound therapeutically.
Further, it is well known that the different parts of the human brain are known to relate to different parts of the body; for example, the two hemispheres of the brain are known to relate to different sides of the body.
The role of the autonomic nervous system has also been gaining significant amounts of attention. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the portion of the nervous system that controls (subconsciously) the function of the different organs and systems of the body. For instance, the ANS regulates heartbeat rate, body temperature, blood pressure, breathing, and bowel and bladder tone, among other variables. It is “autonomic” because our conscious mind does not govern its performance; rather, it works below the level of awareness. An important characteristic of the ANS is the rapidity and intensity of the onset of its action and its dissipation. Centers located in the central nervous system (e.g., brain stem, hypothalamus, and thalamus) and in the spinal cord activate the ANS. These centers also receive input from the limbic system and other higher brain areas. The ANS is thus considered to be the interface between the mind and body functions. These connections enable the ANS to be the main component of the stress response system in charge of fight-or-flight reactions.
The ANS also works closely with the endocrine system (e.g., the hormonal system), particularly the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Another endocrine axis closely related to the ANS involves growth hormone secretion.
The peripheral autonomic system is discussed in terms of two branches: the sympathetic branch and the parasympathetic branch. These two branches have antagonistic effects on most bodily functions, and their proper balance is believed to preserve equilibrium (as well as health or wellness) in the body. Sympathetic activation prepares the whole body for fight-or-flight in response to stress or emergencies. In contrast, parasympathetic activation favors digestive functions and sleep.
The sympathetic autonomic branch extends from the brain stem to the spinal cord and features quite extensive sympathetic nerve tissue in the neck and pelvic areas. From the spinal cord, the sympathetic nervous system is connected to the internal organs and to the extremities. At the skin level, sympathetic activity induces, for example, clammy hands, mottled skin, and piloerection (i.e., goose flesh).
The action of the two branches of the ANS is mediated by neurotransmitters. Adrenaline, which is also known as norepinephrine, is the predominant sympathetic neurotransmitter, whereas acethylcoline acts in the parasympathetic system.
Until recently, the action of the extremely dynamic ANS has been difficult to assess by clinical techniques. Changes in breathing pattern, mental stress, or even posture alter immediately and completely the sympathetic/parasympathetic balance. However, the introduction of a new and very powerful cybernetic technique known as heart rate variability analysis (“HRV)” has permitted nearly instantaneous data collection from individuals without any bodily intrusions or invasions. A particularly useful HRV device is an FDA approved product known as the ANX 3.0 manufactured by ANSAR, Inc., 240 South Eighth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. The variations in heart rate are one of the main parameters tracked in HRV measurements. In particular, the HRV technique is based on the fact that the heart rate is not uniform but varies continuously from beat to beat by a few milliseconds. The periodic components of this endless heart rate variation are dictated by the antagonistic impulses that the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches have on the heart. Cybernetic recording of this constant variability is able to estimate both sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. The elegance of the HRV technique resides primarily in the fact that all measurements are derived from electrocardiograms, so individuals are subjected to almost no discomfort at all during the collection of data.
In particular, HRV measurements are made by connecting an individual to a series of externally applied electrodes, connecting a finger to a pulse oximetry detector and then subjecting an individual to a series of regular breathing, deep breathing, standing, and Valsalva exercises and monitoring the subsequent physical response of the body (e.g., how the sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the ANS together function). In general, a person in a healthy state is perceived to have nearly balanced sympathetic and parasympathetic activity of the autonomic nervous system.
It is further known that natural narcotic-like molecules named endocannabinoids are released by the brain. (R. Nicoll and B. Alger, The Brain's Own Marijuana, Scientific American, December 2004. p. 68.) These molecules participate in regulating hunger, anxiety, pain, and other reactions. Endocannabinoids facilitate the process of retrograde signaling, or depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition. (“DSI”). DSI enhances a form of learning called long-term potentiation, in which information is stored through the strengthening of synapses. In effect, DSI allows individual neurons to briefly disconnect from the neural network and encode information.
Recent studies have linked DSI to anxiety recovery. Rodents lacking endocannabiniod receptors, like normal rodents, can learn an anxiety response to, for example, a bell initially accompanied by an electric shock. Unlike normal rodents, however, the receptor-deficient rodents never lose the anxiety response upon repeated exposure to the bell without the electric shock. Such research suggests the importance of endocannabinoids in recovery from such conditions as post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Various stimuli foster the release of endocannabinoids, which appear to be more abundant in some individuals than others. Recent research suggests that cognition, learning, memory, and anxiety recovery would be enhanced by an environment that encourages the release of endocannabinoids.
Notwithstanding the interrelated and delicately tuned effect of light and sound on an individual user, previous practice has relied either upon the judgment of a practitioner or accepted knowledge as to what frequencies of sound and/or light should be applied to create a benefit. Yet, from the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method provides an environment of sound and light customized to an individual user.